RIJS People

Graduate Students: D-F

Fabian DRIXLER (History) drixler@fas.harvard.edu
Fabian came to Harvard in 2002 after discovering his passion for population history, and for talking shop with old China hands, at Yale. At Harvard, he still leads a Sino-Japanese double life and is sometimes seen parading in a Qing Docs T shirt. However, in his heart of hearts, he knows that his first love -- Japanese Studies, consummated with a BA at Oxford (and a non-degree at Keio) -- will carry the day. In this spirit, he was probing into the mysteries of the rising fertility of 19th century Japan as these lines were posted in the summer of 2003.

Yarrow DUNHAM (Developmental Psychology) dunhamya@gse.harvard.edu
Yarrow is a doctoral student in the human development program at the School of Education. His research focuses on the development of social reasoning in children, especially the understanding of social group concepts like race, gender, and nationality. His recent research compares the development of these concepts in American and Japanese children, raising questions about the role of direct exposure to out-groups. He is also interested in the role that linguistic forms may play in the conceptualization of social status; does the elaborate codification of social hierarchies in Japanese syntax affect children's developing understanding of social status differences? Before pursuing his doctorate, Yarrow spent 4 years working in Japan, most recently as an international exchange coordinator in Kagoshima Prefecture.

Leif-Eric EASLEY (Government) easley@fas.harvard.edu
Leif is a Ph.D. student in the Harvard Department of Government. He graduated senior of the year from UCLA in 2001 with a B.A. in Political Science, International Relations and a minor in Mathematics. Leif presented his honors thesis, "Theater Missile Defense: Balancing the Japan-PRC-TaiwanTriangle" at several international conferences. He has studied and traveled extensively in Asia and Europe. Leif worked with security specialists a tpolicy research centers in Los Angeles (RAND) and Washington, D.C. ( Henry L.Stimson Center) and assisted with conference planning at the Japan-America Society of Southern California. His interests broadly include East Asian security and political economics, Japanese politics, Taiwan's international status, and US foreign policy.

William FLEMING (EALC) wfleming@fas.harvard.edu
After graduating from Harvard in 2001 with a B.A. in physics and an
unofficial minor in Japanese language and literature, Will spent a year as a Fulbright fellow at Kyoto University, where he simultaneously studied classical Japanese literature and worked as a member of a particle physics collaboration. He received his M.A. in Regional Studies East Asia in 2004, having written his thesis on Japanese scientific writing during the period of Dutch Learning (rangaku).  His primary interest is in the fields of Japanese literary and scientific history, specifically in the systems by which early modern Japanese (in the 18th and 19th centuries) pursued, established, and understood scientific knowledge (both indigenous and Western), and in conceptions of the scientific in the popular culture of the time.